Guild Wars announced

NCsoft has today announced that its Seattle-based ArenaNet studio--which was founded by key members of the creative teams behind the Warcraft, Starcraft, and Diablo series--is currently working on what it describes as a mission-based competitive online role-playing game. Guild Wars will cater to players wishing to embark on single-player adventures, cooperate with other players, or even take part in large head-to-head guild battles.

"We're excited to unveil Guild Wars," said Patrick Wyatt, the original producer and lead programmer for the Warcraft series. "We believe that players are going to enjoy experiencing a game that offers technological advances that fundamentally improve the online role-playing experience, and the introduction of a groundbreaking business model for the genre."

Guild Wars is currently scheduled for release toward the end of 2004 and will be shown for the first time at E3 this month. We'll have more information on the game later today.